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No, He’s Not Hitler—Yet. Trumpism is not Fascism—Yet. And while 63 MILLION AMERICANS voted for this guy, that is only 27 Percent of the voting-eligible population. There is plenty of resistance out there to make sure he doesn’t become Hitler and we don’t succumb to neo-fascism. Let’s get to work.

Uber says it is cooperating with an investigation into a fatal accident involving one of its self-driving vehicles over the weekend. A woman in Tempe, Arizona, was struck and killed as she was crossing a street outside of a crosswalk, according to police.

Black boys raised in America, even in the wealthiest families, still earn less as adults than white boys with similar backgrounds. That's according to a new study from the Equality of Opportunity Project, which looked at U.S. Census data to study the lives of 20 million children.

In Russia, a small number of women have spoken out publicly against powerful men who they say have sexually harassed them. Journalist Daria Zhuk is one of them. She says a powerful politician sexually harassed her in 2014 and that Russian women can learn from the #MeToo movement in America.

The world-famous Bolshoi Theatre is a Russian icon. But a new staging of the ballet Anna Karenina takes the beloved Russian epic — and the theater — into the 21st century. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Bolshoi principal dancer Olga Smirnova.

Do states have a moral right to exclude people from their territory? It might seem obvious that states do have such a right, but Sarah Fine questions this in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can su […]

How do I know I'm not dreaming? This sort of question has puzzled philosophers for thousands of years. Eric Schwitzgebel discusses scepticism and its history with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at D […]

What is a robustly demanding good, and what has that got to do with friendship and love? Find out in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast in which Nigel Warburton interviews Princeton Professor Philip Pettit about this topic.

Philosophers talk about 'knowing how' and 'knowing what'. But what is involved in knowing a person? Katalin Farkas discusses this question with David Edmonds in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University.

Are human beings fundamentally different from the rest of the animal world? Can what we essentially are be captured in a biological or evolutionary description? Roger Scruton discusses the nature of human nature with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

The Hard Problem of consciousness is the difficulty of reconciling experience with materialism. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, in conversation with Nigel Warburton, Anil Seth, a neuroscientist, explains his alternative approach to consciousness,which he labels the 'Real Problem. Anil is a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow.

Why does apparently trivial ritual play such an important part in some ancient Chinese philosophy? Michael Puett, co-author of The Path, explains in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can subscribe to […]

What is Art? That's not an easy question to answer. Some philosophers even think it can't be answered. Aaron Meskin discusses this question on this episode of Aesthetics Bites. Aesthetics Bites is a podcast series of interviews with top thinkers in the philosophy of art. It is a collaboration between the London Aesthetics Forum and Philosophy Bites […]

The process of dying can be horrible for many, but is there anything bad about death itself? The obvious answer is that deprives us of something that we might otherwise have experienced. But that leads to further philosophical issues...Shelly Kagan discusses some of these with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

We certainly disagree about aesthetic judgments in a range of cases. But is anyone right? Is there no disputing about taste? Are all tastes equal? Elisabeth Schellekens Damman discusses disagreement about taste in this episode of Aesthetics Bites. Aesthetics Bites is a podcast series of interviews with top thinkers in the philosophy of art. It is a collabo […]

Cobalt used to be a byproduct of copper mining, used in everyday, boring stuff like tires and magnets. Now it's one of the most important and sought after metals on the periodic table. This has implications for big tech firms like Apple.

And remember during the election when Republicans were openly calling Obama a socialist, and Romney, who didn’t want to directly call him one, suggested instead that the president “takes his political inspiration from Europe, and from the socialist-democrats in Europe” ? And remember a Romney campaign ad that The New Republic said linked “Obama with a triumvirate of famous socialists,” including the late Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara?

So, we had Republicans directly saying Obama was a socialist and Romney indirectly saying it and the Joplin Globe siding with Romney and endorsing him. It was enough to make a guy cancel his subscription.

Well, I don’t know exactly what energetic Democratic mole has dug into the hardened ground of the Joplin Globe editorial staff, but I applaud his or her efforts. Believe it or not, via an “Other Views” editorial written by the Scripps Howard News Service, the Globe published this sentence that could have been written by yours truly:

Those figures should give the lie to the charge that Obama is a socialist. If he is, he’s a very bad one.

“Those figures” were these figures:

While the private sector was adding 246,000 jobs in February, the public sector cut 10,000. Newsweek notes that since the spring of 2010, the private sector has created 6.35 million jobs; the public sector has cut 1.5 million jobs.

Let those numbers sink in. Government employment over the last three years has declined by 1.5 million. That’s 1.5 million Americans who could be working and spending and paying taxes and helping to reduce the deficit that has freaked out so many people, including the Joplin Globe editorial board.

Remapping Debate published an article in January (“The incredible shrinking federal workforce“) that examined the ratio of federal employees (federal only, mind you) to population, using the year 1978 as a basis. And get this: The population has grown 40% since 1978 and yet there are 20% fewer federal employees! If the the employment-to-population ratio were the same today as it was in 1978, there would be nearly 350,000 more Americans employed in the federal government. Let that number sink in, too, as you add it to the 1.5 million public sector jobs lost since 2010.

Finally, while you’re thinking about the incredible drag on the economy that a shrinking government workforce represents, keep in mind that it was the Joplin Globe that brought this fact to the attention of its many conservative readers, many of whom believe Barack Obama is a big-government-loving socialist. That is progress, people.

And speaking of the local paper’s progress, the Scripps Howard-Joplin Globe editorial actually made the point that there is “real progress” going on in the economy, even as “lawmakers lurch from one budget crisis to the next.”

Now, if the Globe will go all the way and start to acknowledge that those “lawmakers” responsible for all the lurching are Republican lawmakers, perhaps the paper can regain some of the credibility it lost by that very dumb Romney endorsement.

Jonathan Bernstein got it right, of course. And, of course, the weird neutrality laws governing news reporting these days will mostly ignore the blatant hypocrisy going on with Ryan and the Republicans who support his budget.

“What are the odds the Globe will call out Paul Ryan’s dishonesty regarding Medicare and federal budget cutting? ”

Slim if those odds are first reported on FOX News, “most trusted name in news.” Paul Ryan believes that as long as he keeps hoeing the Tea Party garden, something will eventually sprout. I like to think of it as early campaigning for the opposition by using the “we’re crazy are you crazy” then vote for us or don’t move. It kind of frames the entire party’s perspective on everything, which is nothing, if not stupid first.

ansonburlingame

If or when the Globe supports a Democratic issue or endorses a Democrat for office you praise them to high heaven. But when they choose the other side you condemn it to the pits of hell. Such is partisan politics, consistently. The Obama endorsement in 2008 and Romney endorsement in 2012 are only examples.

However the Globe has been very consistent for at least 5 years, maybe longer but I was not paying attention back then. It supports BEGINING to MOVE the federal government to “live within it means”. You and “yours” challenge such a Globe position every time it arises today. Sure you MAY say that is needed, but only “later”. Today you and “yours” want the lid removed from federal government spending and regulation and condemn anyone or any institution that balks at such nonsense.

The federal government SHOULD have a “core competency”, some basic skills that it MUST perform. Go read the Constitution to see what those MUST HAVES in terms of competency might be and then watch how even those skills are lacking from time to time on the part of the federal government. Read George Will’s column as well in today’s Globe with a view on such matters.

Funding for the federal government must be “adequate” to enable it to fulfill its core competencies for sure. But when Congress and others start piling on other requirements for the federal government, well watch out. At some point that 2 million person bureaucracy gets way beyond its ability to function, adequately or sufficiently and we the people wind up wasting a ton of money, actually TONS of money right down the drain.

Someday I would love to read a “rant” on your part pointing out such failure by a Democrat administration. You do so all the time by a GOP one but hold Democrat ones blameless, it seems to me.

ansonburlingame

No I did not ignore it. I simply don’t consider it very important right now in the whole scheme of things, at least in terms of the magnitude of the changes in government employment, the numbers if you will.

I don’t believe anyone can say X is the exact number of employees needed for the federal government. But as well anyone can and should insist that each and every one of them, all 2 million or whatever the number is, be competant in how they do their jobs. Every employee should be held to strict standards of responsibility and accountability. No single employee, elected or appointed or simply hired should be incompetant. Yet many of them are just that, incompetant bureaucrats, “managers”, and yes, politicians that can and sometimes actually cause harm to Americans.

Part of that process, to make all employees competant, in any organization, is to focus on hiring people with the needed core competancies and then supervising their performance accordingly.

I saw almost unbelieveable incompetancy in the “bowels” of one, actually two, major Government agencies (DOD and DOE) in my professional experiences over about 35 years. I didn’t like it then, do not like it now and would love to see something constructive done about it.

My knee jerk solution while serving in the Pentagon was to “fire every other employee, uniforned or civilian” walking through the doors each morning, as a starter!!! I have “matured” somewhat today but still think it is a MAJOR problem and making it bigger by creating a bigger government is ……..!!!